Two
Mars craters photographed by NASA's Opportunity rover have received new names
to honor the historic Apollo 12 spaceships that carried humans on the second
flight to land on the moon.

The
craters, which Opportunity has visited this month, are called "Yankee
Clipper" and "Intrepid" ? the same designations for the Apollo
12 mission's command module and lunar lander during their November 1969 mission
to the moon, NASA officials have announced. [Photo:
Mars crater Yankee Clipper]

During
the Apollo
12 lunar landing mission, astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean touched down
on the moon in their lander, Intrepid, on Nov. 19, 1969, while crewmate Dick
Gordon remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module Yankee Clipper. The
mission occurred four months after the first manned lunar landing mission ?
Apollo 11 - in July 1969.

In
a message to NASA's Mars rover team, Bean ? now 78 ? told the rover team that
it was a "wonderful honor" to have Mars craters named after the
Apollo 12 spacecraft. [Photo:
Mars crater Intrepid]

"Forty-one
years ago today, we were approaching the moon in Yankee Clipper with Intrepid
in tow. We were excited to have the opportunity to perform some important
exploration of a place in the universe other than planet Earth where humans had
not gone before," Bean said in a Nov. 18 statement. "We were anxious
to give it our best effort. You and your team have that same opportunity. Give
it your best effort."

Opportunity
drove past the crater Yankee Clipper on Nov. 4 and arrived at the Intrepid
crater on Nov. 9. The Yankee Clipper crater is about 33 feet (10 meters) wide,
while Intrepid crater is twice that size.

The
idea to name the craters after the Apollo 12 spacecraft came from rover science
team member James Rice, NASA officials said.

"The
Apollo missions were so inspiring when I was young, I remember all the
dates," Rice said in a statement. "When we were approaching these
craters, I realized we were getting close to the Nov. 19 anniversary for Apollo
12."

Rice sent
Bean and Gordon ? the living members of the Apollo 12 crew ? photographs that
Opportunity took of the two craters. Gordon is 81. Conrad died 1999 at age 69
in a motorcycle accident.

Opportunity
photographed the Yankee Clipper and Intrepid craters while driving toward an
even larger crater called Endeavour. That behemoth of a Mars crater is about 14
miles (22 km) wide, mission scientists have said.

Opportunity
and its robotic twin Spirit have been exploring Mars since both rovers
landed on the Red Planet in January 2004.

The
robots were initially slated to perform a 90-day mission, but have far
outlasted their expected Martian lifetimes. The mission is overseen by NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Last
year, Spirit got bogged down in deep sand and was later rechristened as a
stationary probe. The probe has been silent since late March, presumably
hibernating through the Martian winter, until sunlight levels increase enough
to resume operations on Mars, NASA officials have said. The Martian spring
began last week, they added.

Meanwhile,
Opportunity has been making steady progress toward Endeavour crater.

"Importantly,
it's not how far the rovers have gone but how much exploration and science
discovery they have accomplished on behalf of all humankind," said John
Callas, NASA's Mars rover project manager at JPL.